There were 33 days in June and July when Anderson County reported either no new cases of COVID-19 or one. But that changed around July 12. The average number of new cases reported in Anderson County each day has steadily climbed, and the county is now reporting between 12 and 32 new cases per day.
That is still significantly below the winter peak in December and January, when the new daily case average was more than 100, with peaks over 200 new cases per day.
However, it’s not clear when the current increase in cases might slow down or end. Medical workers and health and government officials are warning about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, especially among the unvaccinated, and they are urging people to get vaccinated. Cases have surged in parts of the United States, including Tennessee and several other states in the Southeast.
On Sunday, the seven-day average of new cases in Anderson County was 18.4, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. That was up from 13.1 on Wednesday, four days earlier. The low point was a seven-day average of 0.4 new cases per day reported July 6.
The longer trend of new cases, a two-week average, was 13.6 on Sunday. That was more than four times as high as the previous two-week average of 3.0.
The positivity rate, a measure of the percentage of positive tests each day, also continues to steadily increase. The most recent seven-day average of the positivity rate was 17.3 percent, the Tennessee Department of Health said Monday. That is a high positivity rate and close to double the 9.4 percent reported by the state on Thursday. About a month ago, the positivity rate was at about 2 percent to 3 percent, which was below the World Health Organization guideline of 5 percent.
There were no new deaths reported due to COVID-19 in the past week and no new hospitalizations since July 14. The last deaths in Anderson County, two of them, were reported by the state on Monday, July 26. There was also a death reported July 19.
It’s not clear how the new delta variant is affecting infected patients who are not hospitalized. The new variant is driving a surge in cases in the United States and an increase in hospitalizations in many states, including Louisiana, Missouri, and Florida. It’s reported to be affecting more younger patients and leading to face masks being required again in many places.
In Anderson County, 219 new COVID-19 cases were reported in July. That was a significant increase from the one-year low of 37 in June.
There were four deaths due to COVID-19 in Anderson County in July and three hospitalizations. There were three deaths and three hospitalizations in June, and zero deaths and eight hospitalizations in May.
Anderson County has reported 9,048 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began March 20, 2020. There have been 179 deaths and 234 hospitalizations.
See the county data here and here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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